Effect of automatic federal budget cuts, due to begin in nine days, on march first. Defense secretary leon panetta notified his entire civilian work force that employees could be sent home without pay. The warning was aimed at Defense Department workers at the pentagon and around the world. Secretary panetta sent them a written message, as he left for a nato defense ministers meeting in brussels. In it, he said there are limited options for coping with the looming acrosstheboard cuts. And, he said on our civilians it will be catastrophic. Woodruff within hours, top pentagon officials were out, saying employees could lose one day of work per week for 22 weeks. Civilians will experience a 20 percent decrease in their pay between late april and september. As a result, many families will be forced to make difficult decisions on where their financial obligations lie. Reporter the furloughs could start in late april and save roughly 5 billion. Uniformed personnel at war would be exempt, but in a letter to congress, panetta wrote that the spending cuts will slow training and the procurement of weapons. The result, he said, will be a hollow force. The nations top military leader had said as much last week at a Senate Hearing on the automatic cuts. Chair of the joint chiefs of staff, general Martin Dempsey this would be the steepest, biggest reduction in total obligating authority for the Defense Department in history at a time when i will personally attest to the fact that its more dangerous than it has ever been. Woodruff in his own statement today, House Speaker john boehner charged the president bears the blame for the stalemate. White House Press Secretary jay carney fired back that republicans are the ones whove refused to compromise. And its important to understand that if they hold that position and the sequester goes into effect. It will go into effect and those americans will lose their jobs because republicans made a choice for that to happen. Woodruff the president wants a combination of spending cuts and increased tax revenue to prevent the sequester. Republicans say theyve already raised taxes, so the focus should be entirely on spending. Steve dennis is White House Correspondent for the newspaper roll call. Right now, the Republican Leadership is saying absolutely nothing, they will allow absolutely nothing, no new revenue. And the white house is saying theyre not going to sign anything that doesnt include new revenue. Its just, you know, its a game of chicken right now. Woodruff and it wont be just ships, planes and troops affected. Domestic spending will absorb the other half of the 85 billion in mandatory cuts. The Obama Administration has warned that, among other things 70,000 students would be removed from head start; air travel would be slowed as air Traffic Controllers are furloughed and benefits for the longterm unemployed could be reduced. But roll calls dennis says the cuts would not all happen at once. You are going to start seeing a lot of what the white house has been talking about has been basically some what vague. They say some people will lose access to child care benefits. Thousands of parents are going to lose their child care benefits for example. Or get kicked off of head start. Well that is not going to happen on march 1. Or even march 15. Woodruff some republicans charge the Obama Administration is exaggerating the potential effects. Both the house and senate are out of session until next week. Theyll return just days before the march first deadline. For more on the sequestration and what it means for the u. S. Military. Im joined by deputy secretary of defense ashton carter. Welcome, mr. Secretary so lets just pick up with that comment from some republicans that this is exaggerated. Well, for us in the Defense Department, unfortunately, its not exaggerated. In fact, we dont want to take any of these steps. We certainly are trying to do it in the way that does the minimum damage to national security. We dont have a lot of flexibility, and we dont have a lot of time in that regard. Sequester requires us to find 46 billion in the last half of the year, and then we have an additional problem with the lack of an appropriations bill, which is a particular problem for us. You put those two things together, and in some of accounts that fund training, for example, for army units, those accounts are 30 short over the year, and now we only have half the year in which to make up those savings. What that means is were going to protect the wars in afghanistan weve got to nund them. We have to fund need to Fund Military personnel. The president exempted military personnel from sequester. So the savings need to be found where we can still find savings, which will be training units that are going to be ready for other conflicts, not for afghanistan, but that means we wont be ready for those other conflicts. Thats just a mathematical fact of doing sequester. This is very damaging to national security. Secretary panetta and i have been saying this and we will do everything we can do minimize the damage but it is what it is. Woodruff when do these decisions have to be made . You made this announcement today, and others look at it and say we have nine days until march 1. Do these decisions are to be made the announcement today was about one particular item which is very important which is the need to furlough some of our civilian personnel in the department. We had to make that announcement today because were required by law, a law that applies to the Defense Department, to inform congress and employees on a certain scheduled. We had to tell them today they are not immediately furloughed, but they are subject to furlough late in the year. And remember, these people are most people think of our employees as people who work in the washington beltway or something. Theyre not. Most of them work outside of washington. They repair our ships. They maintain our aircraft. Thats who these people are. 44 of them are veterans. And so its a terrible thing to have to deprive them of some of their income. Woodruff how do you choose who would be furloughed . Its, unfortunately, going to have to apply to most of our employees except where there is a missioncritical exception. And the reason why it has to apply to most of our employees is that remember, we have to get we have sosave 46 billion, and we have to do that in every way that is legally possible. And that doesnt involve shorting the war or the troops that are immediately involved in combat. Woodruff let me raise another republican criticism, congressman duncan hunter, Armed Services committee, is saying some of the things the steps the Defense Department has taken recently, like thraig an arcraft Carrier Group going to the persian gulf, are done to add drama to all this. Believe me, nobody wants to add drama to this. We want to continue to defend the country as best we can under these circumstances. So every step we take is is is one that were forced to. In the case of the aircraft carrier, there are actually several things going on there, not just the money matter, having to do with maintenance and so forth, and we were trying to make sure that we had a carrier next year and that we could continue to have a carrier there. And for that reason, we werent going to have two carries this year. That was a more complicated decision than a money decision. Everything we do, were really trying to keep on protecting the country and delivering the defense under these circumstances. Aise said, in some cases, thats not going to be possible. Woodruff i is u. S. National security at stake because of what might happen . It is, in the following sense by the end of the year, as i said, twothird of our army units, activeduty army units and all of our reserve units will not be ready to fight other wars. Many of our air force air units will not be ready to fight other wars. A third of our ships in the pacific will not be at sea. Its not because they theyre not there. The ships arent there. Its because we cant afford to operate them because we dont have any money left in the accounts that fund them. And we have to cut account by account by account. Thats what sequestration forces us to do. Woodruff if this gets resolved secretary carter between now and march 1, or soon thereafter, are will all these cuts go away. Oh, yes, we would never do any of these things. Its everyones hope that deals that cover revenues and expenditures which Everybody Knows is necessary that that deal can be made, if congress can come around with a deal like that that the president can sign and we dont have to take any of these steps at all. Whenever that occurs obviously, it may not occur in the next 10 days whenever that occurs well stop doing any of these things that weve been forced to do by sequester. Woodruff finally, let me just raise another comment one hears from republicans who say they are friends of the pentagon on the hill, but they say, look, there are programs at the pentagon that havent worked well, arent efficient. Thats crew displood and you and others should have used this as an opportunity to go ahead and trim and cut those. Thats a very fair point. We ought to be constantly asking ourselves what kind of defense do we need . How much should we spend . Are we using our defense dollars wisely . And the answer is not in all cases are we. And, you know, that is something they think we need to constantly keep pressure on. But this is not the way to achieve that objective. And ill give you an example. We, obviously, want to keep the costs of Weapons Systems down, drive them down. What happens under sequester suhave to stretch out programs, reduce the number youre buying, and that increases the unit cost. So this is at the very time they completely agree with the people youre talking about. We need to be more efficient with the defense dollar, im all for that. But this is not efficient use. This is economically inefficient. And destructive use. It head in just the opposite direction i think we want to do. Woodruff we have nine days to go, well see what happens. Deputy secretary of defense ashton carter, thank you. Thank you. Ifill still to come on the newshour Sonia Sotomayors beloved country; the minds of rampage killers; mapping the brain and a stone age ceremonial site. But first, with the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan former congressman Jesse Jackson junior pleaded guilty today to spending 750,000 in Campaign Funds on personal items. The illinois democrat appeared in a Federal District court in washington. He had resigned from Congress Last november, after being treated for bipolar disorder. Jackson will be sentenced in late june. His wife sandra also pleaded guilty today, to committing tax fraud. The Obama Administration is launching a new strategy to fight cyber theft. The plan announced today includes a diplomatic effort to discourage intellectual property theft abroad. It also calls for better coordination to help u. S. Companies protect themselves. At a washington briefing, attorney general eric holder said the damage done by economic espionage is growing. The stakes have never really been higher. In some industries, a single trade secret can be worth millions or even billions of dollars. Trade secret theft can require companies to lay off employees, close factories, to lose sales and profits, to experience a decline in Competitive Position and advantage or even to go out of business. Sreenivasan the announcement came on the heels of a report by a virginia cybersecurity firm. The findings directly accused the Chinese Military of hacking more than 140 companies in the u. S. And elsewhere. Japanese investigators have found that a lithium ion battery in a boeing 787 dreamliner was wired incorrectly. That word came today from japans transport safety board. An all Nippon Airways plane was forced to make an Emergency Landing last month when the main battery overheated and started smoking. That incident and others prompted the worldwide grounding of all boeing 787s. Meanwhile, Wire Service Reports said boeing is ready to offer a temporary fix to the battery problem. 11 scientists from the u. S. , japan and the netherlands are the inaugural winners of the worlds richest prize for medicine and biology. They were chosen today to receive the breakthrough prize in Life Sciences worth 3 million each. Thats more than double the amount of the nobel prize. Four internet leaders, including facebooks mark zuckerberg, teamed to establish and fund the annual award. They said their goal is to focus attention on scientists doing vital research. Wall street took a hit today. Stocks fell on indications that the Federal Reserve might slow or even stop its economic stimulus efforts. The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 108 points to close at 13,927. The nasdaq fell 49 points to close at 3,164. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to gwen. Ifill one of the supreme courts most junior members, sonia sotomayor, steps from behind the black robe to tell the story of her rise from an impoverished childhood to the nations premier bench. The memoir is my beloved world. I sat down with the justice after the court handed down decisions today, to talk about how her life informs her jurisprudence. Justice sotomayor, welcome, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me here today. Ifill in your book you write an answer thing. You say, i was 15 years old when i understood how it is that things break down, people cant imagine someone elses point of view. Id like to start there. Explain what you meant by that. I think the book does that. I was talking there, i believe, about an incident involving one of my place of work that included my aunt, because i worked in her shop. She didnt own it personally but she worked there as well. And about how they thought they were playing a prank on a family by having the supervisor call the home to tell a false story, that the husband in the home was having an affair with her. And i was in a state of shock that neither my aunt who i loved dearly or the other women who i respected on so many levels couldnt imagine what havoc they were causing in that home. And i see that repeating itself so often when people do things without imagining the intoocts having on the other person. And it was a lifelong lesson. I spend so much of my life sort of thinking about what are other people thinking . Ifill it certainly comes in handy for a judge. Absolutely. But i dont think its just for a judge. I think its for anybody in any life situation. If you dont imagine what the person youre speaking to might be thinking, you cant anticipate highway thats person is reacting to you. Ifill you have now been on the court how long . Its my third and a half year. Ifill wow and its sort of you just said wow. Of its what i feel each passing year. It flies by. Ifill i want to talk to you about your first year when you write about here in the book. I wonder if you would just read the part i outlined there. The first year they faced the challenges of any new environment has always been a time of fevered insecurity, a reflective terror that ill fall flat on my face. In some stfl imposed probationary period, i work with compulsive intensity and single mindedness until i gradually feel more confident. Some of the looming panic is no doubt congenital. I often see in my reaction something of my mothers irrational fear of being unequipped for nurgs school. I have gone through the same kind of transition since becoming a judge, first on the Federal District court, then on the appeals court, and finally on the supreme court. Ifill okay, you dont look like a person prone to terror, so tell me about that. Bui am, gwen. Just what the book describes, which is in every new experience, im anticipating the worse, and doing everything humanly possible to master the situation well, first to learn it, to understand what in my environment means and what it needs to be successful. Its not something that and this is what the book is talking about to every reader. Were not born anything. Were not born a lawyer. Were not born a judge. Were certainly not born a justice, which is something that Justice John Paul stevens reminded me during my first year on the bench one day when i was actually disclosing to him how anxietyridden i was about being a justice. And he just touched upon a reality for me. He said, sonia, none of us is born a justice. We grow into becoming one. Ifill have you grown into one . Not yet, but im growing. Ifill not yet. Not yet but im growing gl ifill one of the things you write about is learned habits for building bridges and building bridge wheres others see cassisms. Thats also part of the lessons i share in the book, if you build bridges and not chasms, if you dont build that sort of pool in front of you, but look at ways of sort of connecting with others rather than seeing your differences, that you accomplish so much more sphwhrief that seems anathema in washington. Im told it is. Ifill just told. Im smiling because, remember, i just got to washington three and a half years ago. But i think its really a life lesson, which is if you approach life looking immediately at how people or situations are different, youre never going tow find a solution to a problem. Ifill i want to talk to you about affirmative action. It is smug support, that you speak of be careful about using that word. Ifill you have court cases which may come before you. No, its not just that, though. Ifill tell me. Its that people approach everything in life with its worst, and i do something very different in life. Trying to find the best in everything. And if you try to find the best in people, theyll usually rise up to y